Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte

Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte

Ocean Heaven with Jet Li

I have a movie to recommend.  Ocean Heaven with Jet Li. Grabbed at random from the bookmobile shelf, this movie turned out to be very moving, important in understanding parents of autistic children and a view inside modern China I never expected. The acting is underplayed and spectacular. Beautiful movie.

African American Oral History

Aunt Sally, old midwife, the only doctor or nurse ever heard of in Gees Bend before project was started. Gees Bend, Alabama photo by Marion Post Wolcott

I'm going to try to make a list here of the major African American Oral history sites. I'm studying oral history projects so I can start my own and I didn't see any collection list like this. So here goes. If I'm missing one please comment or email me. These are projects that are only about African Americans.

1. The History Makers -  "We have more than 2,000 videotaped interviews. 310 have been digitized, comprising about 8,000 hours of videotaped interviews; 60 special event recordings; more than 2,000 online biographies, and over 30,000 photographic images."
2. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 - contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.
3. Getting Word - African American Families of Monticello - 100 Interviews so far
4. Behind the Veil - Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South - 310 interviews--all from North Carolina--from the Durham, Charlotte, Wilmington, Enfield, New Bern, and James City areas.
5. The Oral History Center at the University of Louisville
6. Black Oral History Interviews, 1972-1974 - Quintard Taylor, with associates Charles Ramsay and John Dawkins, interview black pioneers and their descendents throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

Some video documentary interviews

1. Counter Histories  documenting the struggle to desegregate Southern restaurants

Photoshelter's Lattice needs watermarks!

I can't use Photoshelter's new crowd-editing Pinterest alternative, Lattice, because I can't put my images on the Internet without a watermark and here is why:

I have an image of a nutrition label that is very popular. I know for a fact it has never sold with an extended license. It showed up in a magazine with a circulation of 1.5 million. My agency has a limit of 500,000 reproductions, after that you have to purchase an extended license. There isn't one on record. I contacted my agency - they said that because the image is available on my personal portfolio they will not contact the magazine and ask them for the extended license amount. So I am screwed on this one transaction.

I can't really afford to lose ANY sales. And I can't do anything that will make it harder for me to get compensated for future sales.

So I can't put my images on Lattice without a watermark.

Now I am really curious if anyone else feels the same way. So I started a poll.

Would you let me know how you feel about Lattice and watermarks?

Thanks,
Catherine dee Auvil

Beginning Genealogy Tip - Capitalize Your Direct Line

I don't know how many times I have looked at families far back in my tree and I wonder to myself which one of these siblings is MY ancestor again?? So to make it easier on my memory I just learned this tip - type only your direct ancestors in capital letters. I know some people type all their surnames in capital letters. I hate when they do that. What is the purpose? But with this method of capitalizing only my direct ancestors I can look at a group of siblings and right away see my line.

Tim McGraw - Daniel Smith Connection

Google Search: Watch Tim McGraw Who Do You Think You Are

(This is especially for my Indian Creek Nikitie Study Group) I was watching a re-run of Who Do You Think You Are? - Tim McGraw - and I heard them mention our Daniel Smith who lived at Indian Creek, Virginia. He was best friends with our Thomas Mastin. They were friends at Indian Creek and then decided to move to Tennessee together where Daniel Smith became senator. The episode of WDYTYA touches on a lot of our genealogy. They even showed a map that Daniel Smith (he was also a surveyor) made. Here is a map he made of the headwaters of the Clinch:

(Click on Image for larger size) I circled our Indian Creek in red. He includes "Burk's Garden" and Abb Valley - both important places for our families.

Polygamy and Divorce

Found something interesting while I was checking out the changes at Family Search. I was following one of my lines and I found an ancestor named Winthrop Farley. I wanted to know more about him so I Googled him and found out he had 5 wives. Polygamy is not unusual in a Mormon family but 5 is a lot! I found a paper written by Diane Stokoe saying that one of his wives divorced him - Mary Ellen Reed. Mary Ellen Reed was my 3rd great grandmother! I don't really care one way or another if people have polygamous marriages but I feel like she must have really been strong willed to have decided she wanted no part in it. And imagine asking for a divorce in 1859! I am amazed. I can't wait to tell my mom.

The sad part is she had to leave her children behind - they were raised by Winthrop's first wife Angelina Calkins. Here is a portrait of Angelina:

Isn't that a beautiful painting? You can read more about Angelina here. I'm going to try to find out if Mary Ellen Reed lived near Winthrop so she could see her children. I wonder what all the arrangements were like? Although Mary Ellen Reed married again soon after her divorce, to another Mormon, he did not take other wives. Here is a photograph of Mary Ellen Farley, my 2nd great grandmother who was raised by Angelina Calkins:

Now that I know about the divorce and I am figuring out which children go with which wife - I am going to use this family to explore how polygamy was reflected in the census records. More on that later...

The Mormon LDS Family Search Site Now Has Shaky Leaf (Hints) Technology

This is to let some of you part-time genealogists who may not keep up with the news know that Family Search - the Mormon - LDS free genealogy site now has "hint" technology. Most of you are familiar with the "shaky leaf" at Ancestry.com that lets you know if there are documents or census data that might match your ancestor. You can now use that technology at Family Search. Family Search is free. And they have and will continue to expand their photo archive. I looked up one of my lines and there were all kinds of new-to-me photos that are not on Ancestry.

Family Search is a collaborative site like WeRelate. That means there is only one entry per person. Unlike Ancestry where there are 100s of pages for each person and wrong information gets copied over and over again. The future of genealogy is collaborative sites. I don't know how Ancestry is going to compete. We'll see!

Evernote Online Shared Notebook Kludge

Image by Heisenberg Media  Some Rights Reserved

I am working on some projects that will require sharing some Evernote notebooks online. Right away there is a problem. Although Evernote allows you to set the view (by date or title) in your notebooks, when you share them online the first view you see is defaulted to last note created at the top. So, yes, the viewer can then go to the bottom of the page and choose "view options" but who is going to know how to do that? Not about 99% of my readers. They are just going to be lost in the jumble of notes in an odd order and they are going to leave. So. Yes I have checked the message boards and no one else likes this but it will not be changed any time soon. I think most people would want it to default to either how you set it in your own offline notebook, or default to title and you would number or label each note to display how you want the viewer to see it. By the way, I don't really have time to search the forums for things like this. Evernote - please get some kind of voting system in place because I bet this would be number one change request.

My kludge is to create a note and then go into its info and change the date created to 2025. Hopefully I will remember to change that in 2025 (if I am still alive). That way when a new reader looks at my shared notebook they will see the note that I chose at the top. I also title the note "1 - Table of Contents", that way if Evernote changes the default to title or to my chosen offline view (title) - either way "1 - Table of Contents" will come up first and I won't have to change all my notebooks.

If you have a better way or if you hear they are going to change the default view policy please let me know!

Evernote Kludge #1

Johannes Abel -Daniel Abel & Susan Hatfield - Genealogy Name and Location Variation Chart

I'm starting a chart that compares the variations of the Abel/Auvil name and also gives a location for a map I have planned for a future project. The purpose is for researchers to be able to see what surnames they might want to search for during different time periods or locations. hope you find this helpful. I used to keep the copy here on the blog but I moved it to my Evernote notebooks so I could easily update it. LINK HERE

Daniel Abel is Daniel Orville? an example of deciphering no-name census forms

This is an example of what to do when you are working with old census data that does not list first names of family members.

I think I found Daniel Abel on the 1830 census. He purchased land from his father-in-law in 1826 in Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. In 1830 there is a man named Daniel Orville in the Georges census. I don't think there ever was a man named Daniel Orville in Fayette County, I will be looking into that but I have looked at the handwriting and it could be transcribed as Auville. but I am mostly basing it on the fact that I don't believe Daniel Orville existed and Daniel Abel is missing from 1830. And he bout property there 4 years before. The census doesn't have names. It only has numbers so I made a chart. The children don't quite work out but the adults are right on - is that Lewis Auvil? I don't know I think he is on the Randolph census for 1830. It is possible he was moving around and got caught on two census forms.

Let me know what you think.

1830 Census Daniel Orville	Daniel Abel's family in 1830
2 males 5-10 years old	William 4, Elias 6
2 males 10-15 years old	John 10, George 11, Daniel 13
1 male 20-30	Lewis Auvil 27, from 1st marriage?
1 male 50-60	Daniel - 49
2 females under 5	Katie 4, Lydia 2, Harriet 1
1 female 40-50	Susan - 41

What can we learn about Minfeld from the Probst Family?

[Auvil Genealogy] We don't know for sure where Johannes Abel came from. But we do know that his wife, Magdalena Ditlo, has many ties to a place called Minfeld, Germany. She was born in Minfeld. Her parents were both born in Minfeld. Members of her extended family were born in Minfeld. Her grandmother, Maria Elisabetha Vossellmann Fosselman, and her grandfather, Johannes Kauffmann, were both born in Minfeld.
And yet we haven't had any information passed down to our family about Minfeld. Some years ago I searched "Minfeld" and found that their is another (at least one) American family from Minfeld. The Probst Family. There isn't anything written about our links to Minfeld but there is some info online about the Probst family. There is a Probst who married a Fosselman but I don't think we have any in our direct line.
I've found two sources for information. First, a family tree "note" and I don't know who the author is. So if you know please write to me so I can attribute it correctly.

Philip Jacob Probst was a master potter by trade (as were his father and brothers) in Kandel. He left Kandel and moved across the Lauder (River) about 15 miles to Oberseebach, in Alsace, where he met Catherine (Christ?), his future wife. C'erine was a French Heugonot. They were married probably in Oberseebach, although they may have married in Minfeld before they moved to Alsace. (In 1720, Alsace was controlled by Germany, but soon thereafter reverted back to French control.) He might have also later used the name of Philippe Jacques Probst, reflecting the politics of living in French Alsace! The births of his first four children were recorded there. They were French citizens when they left for America. The first names of the three boys may have been originally intended to be Johan, but had become Jean for political reasons, prior to their departure for America. ~Brobst Family Historical Registry

(Kandel is right next to Minfeld) So this gives us an idea of the political climate of Minfeld at the time our ancestors came to America. Interesting that Philip married a Heugonot.

[The Probsts who emigrated from Switzerland some 50-100 miles northwest into the Haut-Rhin were mostly glass-makers. In fact, one of the villages in which they and other glass maker settled was named "Glasshütte"] These glass-makers had to be mobile, because of the need to follow the furnace installations near the forests (most furnaces were fueled by charcoal). ~Centre Départemental d'Histoire des Familles

OUR families from Minfeld were glassmakers! Johannes worked at a glass factory in Frederick and his (possible) sister was married "at the glassworks" in Frederick.

I have one more link for now - a story by  Bill Brobst about visiting Kandel and Minfeld. If any Auvils visit Minfeld please tell us about your trip!

If I find anything else out about Minfeld I will post it here. I'm planning on starting a penpal project when I get a little time.

Note: Probst became Brobst in America.

Researching your American Indian ancestors

The question was asked how we are going to go about trying to verify oral history that our Nancy Valentine Auvil was a Delaware Indian. So I will use this as an example for what I have learned from my other lines about this subject.

1. Male yDNA Haplogroups. One way to verify American Indian heritage is to have a DNA test on a male member of the family to determine their Haplogroup. The Haplogroup would be the same for the direct line of males in a family clear back to their origins. A Haplogroup of Q, C or R1 are the most commonly found in Native Americans. You can read more about it here. R1 is European and I believe it means that your ancestor inter-married with a European before coming to America or after. It is included here because a high percentage of Cherokee, for example are showing R1 yDNA Haplogroups. If your male DNA shows Q or C - that is a pretty clear indicator of your Indian heritage. If it is R1 it is not so clear but does not rule out Indian heritage. In our example of Nancy Valentine, the only way we would know is if we find a male in her direct line, a male with the surname Valentine, and we test his DNA. Women cannot be tested for yDNA. I don't know of any living male Valentines but we might find one! We should start looking.
2. Female DNA tests. If the Native American ancestor was female you can do an mtDNA test and if the test shows sub-Haplogroups of, A, B, C, D or X2a it would show ancestry indigenous to the Americas. Now, I am not sure if the maternal tests will work if the ancestor was more than 5 generations back. I'm not really sure. I am not an expert, I am just trying to summarize what I know here. For a starting point.
3. I have heard from people that if they have a maternal line that is too far back to show mtDNA heritage that there are test facilities that look for certain markers that Native Americans have that if you also have those markers it would verify your ancestry. I don't really know anything about this yet, but it would be an avenue to pursue if you could not find a male relative to test and your mtDNA is too diluted to show your heritage.

If I find out more I will post it here. I just wanted to make a little Native American Heritage 101 post.

A short history of Auvil research.

If you are new to Auvil genealogy maybe I should do a little round-up for you so you know who came before you.

The first I knew about Auvil genealogy is when Ida Wheeler, granddaughter of Llewellyn Auvil, gave some xeroxed copies of family trees to my grandmother Jean (Rutherford) Auvil and Jean showed them to us. Ida knew Jinx Hartung, granddaughter of Josephine Annette Auvil. Jinx wrote the Auvil Lines newsletter and as far as I know did most of the pain-staking, dusty book, micro-fiche in dark library basement research that forms the basis of what we know about the Auvils. Whenever we can we have noted that a certain clue or document was found by Jinx (or anyone else).
When the Internet was new I put up everything I had been given by Jinx up at a website called Auvil.com. After some years really struggling as a widowed mom, I didn't see the priority (financially) of maintaining the website any longer and  fortunately Jolene Uyehara Auvil uploaded all the files to a free website so we don't have to be concerned with annual fees anymore. You can see it all here: Forest for the Trees (Thanks Jo!)
At about this time Don Auvil, son of Simeon Hannibal Auvil, compiled his research into a self-published book. I don't know if that book is available for purchase but I will find out and post the info here.
There are many more people who were doing research in that era and Jo made a great list that she included at the Forest site, I will quote her here.

This part of our site stands in appreciation to and is made possible by Catherine [dee] Auvil and the diligent, tireless Auvil genealogists who contributed to the former Auvil.com website: Dennis Auvil, Don Auvil, Carla Cegielski, Geneva Jinx Hartung, Nicholas Sturm, Larry Duane Spessert, Stan Galperson, April Matthews, Mary Elizabeth Auvil, Barbara Warden, Bob A. White, Charles William Auvil, Jr., Gene Auville, Nancy Rogers, Vicki Haas, to name just a few.

(I should note here that I began using my middle name  mostly for genealogy reasons. Catherine is a common name and if there is a Catherine Auvil in the future who is interested in Auvil genealogy I hope that she uses her middle name so we can distinguish between us. I hope all the John, Don and Mary Auvils in the future do the same!)
Currently we are all meeting at the Facebook Auvil Genealogy Group. If you are not into Facebook I sympathize! But it is the best thing we have found to work for us right now. Please join us there.

We are now discussing genealogy in the Appalachian Heritage Group at Facebook.

Links for all our discussion groups
Now who is currently researching the Auvil family tree? I will try to gather that information and post it here.

Methias Auville Mystery!

I was studying this census entry for Susan (Hatfield) Auville because I wondered who that Susan Kyser is - I found out and I will write in another post - but then I stumbled on a mystery - who was this Methias Auville?? Obviously he must be a grandson of Susan, but who were his parents and why is he living with her and what became of him?? So I entered his name in a search and nothing came up for a match to any Auville parents and he seems to just drop off the map. But there was ONE curious search result - In 1860 there is a young boy, Matth Oval, born in Virginia in about 1844, an inmate of the House of Refuge (jail or reformatory) in Pennsylvania for larceny!

Because I think that 90% of all Ovals and Anvils are really mis-spelled Auvils I think he may be our Methias Auville.

One clue I have searching the House of Refuge is that I found a message board post for the Edward Owen that is next in the census list after Matth. His descendant says that he was a soldier in the Civil War just the next year. Could our Methias be a soldier - under any odd spelling? We have to find out if there are any Ovals or Anvils in the Civil War. The post says that Edward enlisted in the 61st Pennsylvania Volunteers. Are there any Auvils studying the Civil War right now?

Marriage of David Nestor and Elizabeth Cox

I was looking for the marriage record of David Nestor and Elizabeth Cox, married in Randolph County, Virginia in 1812 and I found this entry - David Unreadable (Keter) and Elizabeth Cocks Randolph County 1812. Cox is often spelled Cocks so that is no problem. But I think this Keter is our David Nestor - one reason is I don't think there was a David Keter.
I'm not really sure what this document is because it doesn't really look like 1812 writing - it looks like it was a transcription of an earlier document. I wish I could see the original document. Here is the full page if you would like to see it.

Who owns the Agnes Tazewell Tizah-nee (Bailey) Cline daguerreotype?

Who owns this daguerreotype of Agnes Tazewell Tizah-nee (Bailey) Cline and scanned it for the Internet? I'd like to ask them if we could use it for our *Nikitie group.

*Nikitie Group: We have a study group for all the people who are descended from the Longhunters who inter-married with the Shawnee, Cherokee, Powhatan and other tribes and lived in a place called Indian, Virginia from about 1700 to present day. If you are a descendant or you would like to study this group please join here: Nikitie Group

Do you know the origins of our Thomas Bailey Christian portrait?

I have tried to track down who first uploaded this image to Ancestry.com with no luck. I believe it was first uploaded to Ancestry and that is how it was first passed around. I contacted ptholden0606 at Ancestry (the person I thought originally uploaded the image on 07 Sep 2010) but he thought he got it from another member that did not join until 2011. Do you know of an earlier upload of this image to Ancestry or anywhere else? It seems to be impossible to search for "date uploaded" on Ancestry.  If you have ANY information about this photograph please let me know!

• Who made this scan?
• Who owns the original?
• Is there any information about the photographer in the case?
• Do you recognize the case - that would help identify the photographer?
• How does the original scanner know this is our TBC?
• If you know ANYTHING, no matter how small please let us know!

We also have a photograph of Mastin Christian, died 28 FEB 1853 in Sinking Waters,Tazewell, Virginia, USA, he is TBC's first born child.   We also need any information you have on this photograph or who scanned it for the Internet. Mastin and his father died the same year, 1853. Yes, that was early for photography and the way they look, these photos must have been taken very close to the last days of their lives. And I am guessing about the same time. Notice how Mastin and his father seem to be wearing the same kind of dress shirt and the same kind of tie.

Mastin Christian

David Christian - who passed in 1861. Do you know anything about this picture? It also appears to be a daguerreotype like the others. That does lend credibility because that would be the correct format for that era of photography. It also appears that if one member of the family could afford a portrait and had access to a photographer then others would as well.

David Christian

I have also made an image comparing the photo cases of images we have from that era. They are all different. I would assume if it were the same photographer the cases would be the same. I'm going to see if I can find out more about what variety of cases a photographer would have offered at that time.

Tracing Genealogy Through Design Motifs

This is something I have been wanting to write about for awhile - how some design motifs - quilt appliques, rug design, beadwork, stone carvings and petroglyphs could give us clues to how people migrated. The first one I have thought of is Maori > Seattle (Pacific Northwest Coast). Compare these designs and then tell me what you think * In my Google searches I use to illustrate this post not every picture is the exact searched term. It is intended to just give a broad idea of the subject. First "Maori Fish Design"

Maori Fish Design

"Haida Fish Design"

Haida Fish Design

"Tlingit Fish Design"

Tlingit Fish Design

The second set that caught my eye is Central Asian to Pennyslvania Dutch. I was really shocked to read a blog post by a quilter who saw Central Asian design elements in Pennsylvania Dutch needlework. Then I found out as far back as 2003 genealogists have been speculating that the people we call the Pennsylvania Dutch may be Central Asian or they traded heavily with Central Asia before coming to America. Some of this speculation is based on DNA testing. Here are some Google image searches:

"Pennsylvania Dutch Applique"

Pennsylvania Dutch Applique

"Central Asian Design"

Central Asian Design

Another one I read about in the National Geographic gift catalog in the description of a Talavera-style bird planter "The distinctly Mexican pottery called talavera traces its origins to Spanish majolica, which was itself an adaptation of tin-glazed ceramics introduced by the Moors."  Googling those terms I found historians that said that this kind of pottery originated in Baghdad and traveled like this - Baghdad > North Africa (the Moors) > Spain (Majorca) and then on to Italy and Mexico (Talavera-style) with Spanish Catholic priests.

"Tin-glazed Ceramics of the Moors"

Tin-glazed Ceramics of the Moors

"Spanish Majolica"

Spanish Majolica

"Talavera Style"

Talavera Style

This one I found researching my own genealogy because our Haplogroup has been traced to Kazakhstan and while studying Kazakh design I was struck by how similar some of the design motifs are to the Metis of Canada.

"Kazakh Needlework"

Kazakh Needlework

"Metis Quillwork"

Metis Quillwork

"Metis Beadwork"

Metis Beadwork

I have one more. The Etowah plates, found near Cartersville, Georgia in 1885 are very plainly Mayan design and have lead researchers to speculate that the American southeast was colonized by Mayans. DNA testing should shed light on these findings. If you would like to read more about these ideas you can go to People of One Fire. See also: The Willoughby Disk and Moundbuilder Pinterest board

Rogan Plate 1, falcon dancerplate found at Etowah

Image of Maya Grolier Codex

I'd like to do more one-on-one comparisons when I have time, but just wanted to get this out there and see if anyone else has some comparisons they have been thinking about or know anyone who is studying this area of genealogy/ art history.

Getty Images Now Free for Blogs and Social Media

Getty Images has just announced a legal, and free option to share Getty images on websites, blogs, and social media. That is pretty shocking. I'm just going to embrace it. Can't put toothpaste back in the tube. So here is a picture of a woman walking by grafitti on a wall on March 17, 2014 in Simferopol, Ukraine by Spencer Platt. I think this is going to be fun actually. And the image links back to Getty where you can license it. This is similar to how I feel about Pinterest - as long as a pin links back to the source where you can find out how to buy a print or purchase a digital download of a high res version - then I believe Pinterest is only good for photographers.

Photoshelter Help

I've been getting really serious about adding to my portfolio at Photoshelter. And I had to draw out what goes where when you add metadata like headline, title, description. I have a Beam website because I want my website to be smart phone compatible. I am pretty happy with it so far. I made a graphic and I am sharing it here. The more people who are successful at Photoshelter the better for me, I figure. Clicking the picture will bring up a larger, more readable size.

The one tip I want to pass on is that you should keep the file extension for the name of your image. I know, it doesn't look that great, but I found out the hard way that if you take it off, when the client downloads the image they will have to re-name it in order to see it and some clients will not know how to do this. Who has time for that?!

If you have any problems at Photoshelter, customer service is great. You may have the first reaction to post on the forums for help but they are not very active and you may feel frustrated with no responses. Just call customer service - they have always been great for me. I've been with Photoshelter since the beginning.

One last thing - If you sign up with Photoshelter would you consider using my referral link? Thank you! Catherine